Netanyahu says he will inform Trump, not seek approval, before striking Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would brief U.S. President Donald Trump on Israel’s plans regarding Iran but would not seek his approval to strike it, stressing that he had ordered the only acceptable solution to be the overthrow of the Iranian regime.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, October 22, during an election rally in the southern Israeli city of Dimona: “I will inform Trump of what we intend to do, but I will not ask him for approval to strike Iran,” Agence France-Presse reported.

Netanyahu added: “I issued a directive stating that the only acceptable solution is the overthrow of the regime in Iran... Therefore, there is one way to end this matter: overthrowing that regime.” He explained that the directive had been issued to the Israeli military, the Mossad and all security agencies, without specifying when or how it would be implemented. He continued: “Iran wanted to destroy us, so we stopped it. It wanted to produce nuclear bombs, so we stopped it... Yet it continues.”

Denial of Financial Times report

العلم الإيراني

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 7, Netanyahu denied a Financial Times report that Trump had prevented him from launching an attack on Iran, saying: “This report is false. I will not engage in correcting this biased report.” The newspaper had cited three sources as saying that the Israeli military had prepared several days of intensive strikes on Iranian targets during the weekend corresponding to October 10, including nuclear facilities, power stations and sites linked to the regime, and that Trump had opposed resuming the fighting before the U.S. midterm elections on November 3.

Trump had written on Truth Social: “We will not attack Iran at any time before the midterm elections,” stressing that the U.S. naval blockade would remain in place and that Iran would not be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon.

Opposition criticism

Netanyahu’s remarks came days before Israel’s elections, scheduled for next Tuesday, in which he is in a close contest with an opposition bloc led by former Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot. Opposition leader Yair Lapid said: “Netanyahu is turning Israel’s security into an electoral circus.” Axios also reported that dozens of Israeli fighter jets flew toward the Iranian border on Monday, while Israel described the sortie as a show-of-force exercise that Washington had been informed of in advance.

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